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Dear Ignorant Parents That Refuse to Vaccinate Your Children

This post has sadly been removed due to publication and copyright laws. You can still read it, though, by buying B(itch) Against the World for unlimited viewing, plus more great and new posts from 2011. And it’s only $2.99! Click the picture of the cover for more details!

You’re spot on. It’s funny how some parents are more willing to listen to Jenny McCarthy or something they read on the internet than their own doctors who have spend decades in their practices. Hilarious post.

False – I don’t know a lot about anything! I do, however, like to think that I know a lot. And I read more than any other of my waking life activities, including the news and studies and did a lot of research for that blog. I really wanted to know if there was any legitimacy behind the vaccine fears.

Oh Lordy, I had never even run across that guy until you mentioned him; now I have spent way more time than I should have reading through his website. He seems to be at war against the HPV vaccine…what a douche.

Andrew – excellent question and I think this is really important in the conversation…

The problem with not vaccinating against age-old diseases like polio, measles, mumps, etc. is that they not only resurface, but when they resurface, they do so *mutated.* The vaccinations that say my children get may not be as or at all effective against the mutated form. In a lot of local communities around the United States, this is now being seen with whooping cough. In Europe, it’s happened with whooping cough’s brother, tuberculosis. A great thing to consider are the common cold and flu viruses – they mutate constantly, which is why cold viruses will probably never be eradicated; and why influenza vaccines must be updated regularly. Cold and flu are not the only diseases that mutate though – all of them have the potential to.

So say people continue to not vaccinate their children and my kids go to school with them. A couple years from now, even more kids aren’t being vaccinated and now my kid is in a room with roughly 10% of the children not vaccinated. One of them contracts a disease that has mutated (which unfortunately you often don’t find out about the mutation anywhere near enough in time to update the vaccine). My kid is then in danger.

I live in Australia, vaccination is required for most schools and for some parental tax breaks.

What’s interesting is that Vaccination uptake is lowest in affluent suburbs. Seems that the same moms and dads that visit the naturopath to get their Prescription power-balance chrystal bracelet also think that their kids are so safe and protected that Vaccine is just an additional risk they can afford to avoid. So I would challenge the assumption that it is ignorant or uneducated people who don’t take vaccines – I think it is people who think they are educated and smart enough to manage the risks themselves.

Personally I think it’s irresponsible and stupid. You should be required to sign a waiver and accept the risks of NOT having your vaccines too, I would imagine a 1 in 10,000 risk of DEATH from measles might make an interesting comparison for a 1 in 1 million risk of serious side effect from vaccine.

It’s sad that with more education comes a greater sense of ignorance and imperviousness to reality. I agree with you completely – the 1 in 1 million risk of a serious side effect from vaccine is much different than the risk of death from not being vaccinated, and even more concerning the risk of previously dormant and now mutated diseases resurfacing.

Thank you so much for reading and commenting – and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

But is your wife a hillbilly? She could be a lone non-hillbilly in a state of hillbillies run by people with common sense. Sounds complicated, I suppose haha. It is a law but in most states you can sign an opt-out for “religious or other personal reasons.”

My wife is from West Virginia (which most people think of as a hillbilly state, probably you included) and she believes in children getting vaccinated. Apparently, state law has said that vaccinations are required for children to be able to attend school.

Sort of. Yes, I was trying to get more hits; but also was trying to create an image of just what kind of a person I think doesn’t vaccinate their kids. I really imagine them all to be wearing overalls and have no teeth … not sure why.